Low power serial link

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a low power serial link employing differential return-to-zero signaling. A receiver circuit consistent with some embodiments includes an input circuit for receiving differential serial data signals that form a differential return-to-zero signaling and a clock recovery circuit. The clock recovery circuit is coupled to the input circuit and includes a logic gate configured to generate a clock signal by using said differential serial data signals.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/756,139, filed May 31, 2007 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,000,412 and entitled “Low Power Serial Link”, which claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/810,226, filed Jun. 1, 2006 and entitled “Low power serial link”, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to data communications, and more particularly to a low power serial link.

2. Art Background

Continuing advances in consumer electronics and computing technologies are driving the need for high-speed communications links between silicon chips. While high-speed links have been traditionally used in network switching, as described by “Clause 47: XGMII Extender Sublayer (XGXS) and 10 Gigabit Attachment Unit Interface (XAUI)”, Part 3: Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) Access Method and Physical Layer Specifications, IEEE 802.3ae, August 2002; and in high-performance computing applications, as described by PCI Express Base

Specification Revision 1.0a, PCI-SIG, April 2003, there is an increasing need for high-speed links in mobile consumer electronic devices. For example, in mobile phones there is a need for communication between the digital signal processor (DSP) and the liquid crystal display (LCD) driver chip and between the DSP and the camera module. With improvements in the resolution (i.e. number of pixels) in the LCD and camera comes a need for increased data rates in the chip-to-chip links.

High-speed chip-to-chip communications can be performed using many parallel input and output (I/O) drivers each operating at a relatively slow rate or using a small number of I/O drivers operating at a higher rate. In general the number of pads available on a chip for high-speed chip-to-chip communication is limited by a host of factors including package size, requirements for power supply pads, and printed circuit board space. In portable electronics applications, where space is at a premium, the use of faster links with fewer lines is advantageous. Thus, serial-type architectures are increasingly being used in such devices.

Further, low power dissipation is desirable in most electronics applications because it reduces the need for heat dissipation and eases power supply design. However, power is especially important in mobile applications, where battery life must be maximized and battery weight minimized. Internal communications structures can be a major source of power dissipation, thus, low power chip-to-chip links are especially desirable in mobile applications.

Hence, a low power serial structure with low power dissipation and a small footprint is a desirable internal communications structure for a portable device. A number of conventional designs attempt to provide such a structure, but each has several drawbacks.

For instance, a block diagram of a conventional low-power serial receiver/transmitter pair is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. This pair is representative of the link embodied in a Fairchild Semiconductor device described in “FIN12AC μSerDes Low Voltage 12-Bit Bi-Directional Serializer/Deserializer with Multiple Frequency Ranges”, Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation Datasheet.

In the transmit portion 100 a, input data, “Parallel Tx Data”, to be transmitted on the serial link are fed into a multiplexer (MUX) 110 and then driven off-chip by an output driver circuit 112 to produce an output signal “Tx Signal”. Clocks required by MUX 110 are generated using a phase-locked loop (PLL) 120. A transmit clock is driven along with the data by a separate clock driver circuit 122. The clock, “Tx clock” provides timing to the receiver at the other end of the link. The data is usually driven using binary, non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signaling as shown in FIG. 2. While binary, single-ended signaling is shown, combinations of differential signaling and multi-level signaling can also be used.

In the receiver portion 100 b, the “Tx Signal” is received as “Rx Signal” and the “Tx Clock” is received as “Rx Clock”. The “Rx Signal” is retimed using “Rx Clock”. A data receiver circuit 132 receives the “Rx Signal” and a clock receiver circuit 134 receives the “Rx Clock”. A retiming circuit 130 then retimes the “Rx Signal” data using the “Rx Clock”, and provides the retimed data to an output de-multiplexer (DeMUX) 140. The DeMUX 140 uses the received clock to present the data in a low speed (relative to the serial link speed), parallel format as “Parallel Rx Data”.

With the use of the architecture in FIGS. 1A and 1B, two signals (clock and data) have to be routed in each direction, resulting in a power dissipation and printed circuit board area penalty.

A second conventional serial link architecture is shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B. This architecture is representative of the transmitter and receiver pair described in “THCV213 and THCV214 LVDS SerDes Transmitter and Receiver”, THine Electronics Datasheet.

In this architecture the transmitter does not send a clock along with the data. In the transmit portion 200 a, input data, “Parallel Tx Data”, to be transmitted on the serial link are fed into a multiplexer (MUX) 210 and then driven off-chip by an output driver circuit 212 to produce an output signal “Tx Signal”. Clocks required by MUX 210 are generated using a phase-locked loop (PLL) 220. No transmit clock is driven along with the data. Instead, timing is recovered at the receiver.

In the receiver portion 200 b, the “Tx Signal” is received as “Rx Signal”. A data receiver circuit 232 receives the “Rx Signal”. A clock-and-data recovery (CDR) circuit 250, which is a specialized form of PLL, is used to recover a clock that is synchronous with the received serial data signal “Rx Signal”. The recovered clock from the CDR 250 is provided to both the retiming circuit 230 and to the output de-multiplexer (DeMUX) 240. The retiming circuit 230 uses the recovered clock to retime the input data and provides the retimed data to the output DeMUX 240. The output DeMUX 240 also receives the recovered clock and uses the clock to present the received data in a low speed (relative to the serial link speed), parallel format as “Parallel Rx Data”.

In FIGS. 3A and 3B, the elimination of the transmit clock driver results in power savings. However a CDR is generally expensive in terms of power dissipation and chip area, as described in, Y. Greshishchev et al, “A Fully-Integrated SiGe Receiver IC for 10 Gb/s Data Rate”, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, December 2000. Furthermore, with NRZ signaling the CDR is implemented using a control loop that is, in general, complicated to design. A tradeoff must be made among the following factors: (1) tracking capability of the CDR in the presence of input signal phase jitter, (2) CDR loop stability, and (3) the variation of CDR loop dynamics over variations in the integrated circuit manufacturing process, power supply voltage, and chip temperature.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Some embodiments of the present invention relate to receiver circuits. For example, a receiver circuit consistent with some embodiments comprises an input circuit for receiving differential serial data signals that form a differential return-to-zero signaling and a clock recovery circuit. The clock recovery circuit is coupled to said input circuit and includes a logic gate configured to generate a clock signal by using said differential serial data signals. Preferably, the differential serial data signals received are formed of a data bit stream and the clock signal is used to generate a recovered data bit stream from the differential serial data signals.

Embodiments of the present invention are preferably implemented in integrated circuits (IC). For example, consistent with some embodiments, a transmit/receive pair of

ICs comprises a first integrated circuit chip and a second integrated circuit chip.

The first IC chip comprises a transmitter for receiving data and for generating differential serial data signals that form a differential return-to-zero signaling.

The second IC chip comprises an input circuit for receiving said differential serial data signals and a clock recovery circuit coupled to said input circuit. The clock recovery circuit comprises a logic gate for generating a clock signal by using said differential return-to-zero signaling. Preferably the differential serial data signals are formed from the data received by the first IC chip. Further, the data received is preferably in the form of a data bit stream. Also preferably, either in the second IC chip or in another IC chip, the clock signal is used to generate a recovered data bit stream from the differential serial data signals.

Some embodiments of the present invention are implemented in master/slave systems of chips. For example, a system comprising a master circuit and a plurality of slave circuits wherein the master and slave circuits each communicate via serial architecture consistent with the present invention.

In some embodiments a master circuit comprises a plurality of transceiver circuits to transmit and receive differential serial data signals that form a differential return-to-zero signaling over a plurality of serial links. The master circuit comprises a single phase-locked loop to generate timing signals for the transceiver circuits. Preferably the master circuit is configured to receive a data bit stream and to form the differential serial data signals of the data bit stream.

The master-circuit system further includes a plurality of slave circuits. Each slave circuit comprises an input circuit for receiving said differential serial data signals and a clock recovery circuit. Each clock recovery circuit is coupled to the input of its slave circuit and comprises a logic gate for generating a clock signal by using the differential return-to-zero signaling of the differential serial data signals. Preferably the clock signal is used to form a recovered data bit stream of the differential serial data signals.

Some embodiments of the present invention include methods related to low power serial links that use differential serial data. For example, some embodiments relate to methods of recovering a clock from serial data. One such method comprises steps of: receiving differential serial data signals that form a differential return-to-zero signaling, and executing an OR logic operation between said differential serial data signals so as to recover a clock from said differential serial data signals. Preferably the differential serial data signals received are formed from a data bit stream and the clock recovered is used to form a recovered data bit stream from the differential serial data signals.

Further, some methods relate to providing data and timing over a serial link and decoding said data. One such method comprises steps performed on a transmit side and a receive side. The transmit side performs the steps: receiving data, generating a transmit clock signal, encoding the data into a plurality of differential serial data signals, and providing the plurality of differential serial data signals over a serial link to a receiver.

The plurality of differential serial data signals form a differential return-to-zero signaling and timed by the transmit clock signal.

The receive side performs the steps of receiving said differential serial data signals and executing an OR logic operation between said differential serial data signals so as to recover a clock from said differential serial data signals. Preferably the clock recovered is used to form a recovered data bit stream of the differential serial data signals.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1A illustrates a transmit portion of a conventional serial architecture that requires routing of both data and clock.

FIG. 1B illustrates a receive portion of a conventional serial architecture that requires routing of both data and clock.

FIG. 2 illustrates non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signaling as typically used in the architecture of FIGS. 1A and 1B.

FIG. 3A illustrates a transmit portion of a conventional serial architecture that employs a clock-and-data recovery (CDR) circuit.

FIG. 3B illustrates a receive portion of a conventional serial architecture that employs a clock-and-data recovery (CDR) circuit.

FIG. 4 illustrates a proposed differential return-to-zero (RZ) signaling consistent with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates far-end termination as preferably employed within the embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a clock recovery circuit consistent with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates waveforms consistent with clock recovery in some embodiments of the present invention and associated with the clock recovery circuit of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 illustrates a clock and data recovery solution consistent with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a system employing a low power serial link consistent with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of exemplary operational steps to recover a clock from a differential serial data bit stream consistent with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of exemplary operational steps of a system employing a low power serial link consistent with some embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Signaling

Embodiments of the present invention comprise serial links making use of differential return-to-zero (RZ) signaling as shown in FIG. 4. A fixed signaling duty cycle (not necessarily 50% of the bit time) is used.

As shown in FIG. 4, some embodiments of the present invention employ differential return-to-zero signaling that transmit high bits (i.e. 1's) on one line of a differential link and low bits (i.e. 0's) on another. In FIG. 4, high bits are transmitted on the P Side, while low bits are transmitted on the N Side. The transmission is clocked across the entire differential signal, though each line is only active for its type of bit. This facilitates clock reconstruction as the transmit timing is proportional to the superposition of all transmission signals.

Preferably embodiments of the present invention employ RZ signaling, as in FIG. 4, and far-end termination, depicted in FIG. 5. In the exemplary link 500, a driver 530 provides signals to the receiver 520 across a link channel 510. As shown, the receiver 520 provides impedance necessary to terminate the link line.

Due to the nature of the differential data, with far-end termination current flows across the terminating impedance of the receiver 520 only during a portion of each bit time. Because the differential timing in the present invention allows for signaling duty cycles of less than 50% of the bit time, the proportion of transmit time for which current flows can be quite low. This arrangement provides a reduction in power dissipation relative to NRZ signaling.

Clock and Data Recovery

Another advantage of differential RZ signaling is that clock recovery can be greatly simplified relative to NRZ signaling. Preferably a simple logic-gate-like circuit, such as an OR gate is used to recover the clock without the use of a traditional CDR phase-locked loop. Such a clock recovery circuit is typically much easier to design and dissipate less power. However, note that a CDR circuit could still be used with the differential RZ signaling method.

One possible circuit for performing clock recovery is shown in FIG. 6 with associated waveforms depicted in FIG. 7. Note that this circuit does not require the feedback loop associated with conventional CDR circuits.

In the clock recovery circuit 600 of FIG. 6, differential data is received at the inputs 640. This data is fed to the logic-gate like circuit 610. The logic-gate like circuit 610 in combination with the drivers 630 a and 630 b modulate the supply voltage 620 to produce a clock signal pair at the output 650. In essence, the clock signal pair CKN and CKP is a reconstruction of a clock provided at the input 640.

As illustrated the logic-gate like circuit 620 is a logical OR operating on the inputs 640. As shown by FIG. 7, a high signal on either INP or INN pulls CKN low and pushes CKP high, while no signal lets CKP stay low and CKN stay high. Because the transmission is timed across both P and N inputs this superposition of the two signals produces a clock at the output 650. However, the clock produced by the recovery circuit 600 has a duty cycle determined by that of the differential signal.

While the circuit of FIG. 6 is a simple implementation of a clock recovery circuit for differential RZ signaling, it is possible that other clock recovery circuits can be devised.

Once the clock has been recovered using the circuit of FIG. 6 the RZ data is preferably recovered. Some embodiments of the present invention employ an integrate-and-dump (ID) circuit to this end. A description of integrate and dump circuits is given by S. Sidiropoulos and M. Horowitz, “A 700-Mb/s/pin CMOS signaling interface using current integrating receivers, ” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, May 1997.

Preferably a clock recovery circuit and integrate-and-dump are used in conjunction with a T-flip-flop (divide-by-two circuit) as shown in FIG. 8.

The clock and data recovery circuit 800 of FIG. 8 employs a clock recovery circuit 820, an integrate-and-dump (ID) circuit 810, and a T-flip-flop 830. The circuit 800 receives differential data at 801 and provides it to both the clock recovery circuit 820 and to the differential amplifier 805. Preferably the clock recovery circuit 820 operates as described above; however, note that the clock recovery circuit may produce a clock that does not have a 50% duty cycle (the duty cycle of the clock depends on that of the differential data).

The differential amplifier 805 produces a positive pulse when a “1” is received. A negative pulse is produced when a “0” is received. The pulses at the output of the differential amplifier are provided to the ID circuit 810.

In the ID circuit 810, the positive or negative pulses form positive or negative voltage across the integrating capacitors. As shown, the voltage signal across each capacitor is sampled using a flip-flop timed by the recovered clock output of the T flip-flop 830. Note that while the clock recovery circuit may produce at output signal that does not have 50% duty cycle, the output of the T-flip-flop 830 will have a nominal duty cycle of 50% at half the input data rate. Each flip-flop will produce a “1” if it samples a positive value and a “0” if it samples a negative value. This sampling, timed by the recovered clock from the T flip-flop 830, produces de-multiplexed, recovered data.

System Architecture

FIG. 9 shows the block diagram of a system 900 making use of the low-power serial link technology described in this disclosure. Each link is a point-to-point link. However, other implementations are possible where a multi-drop bus architecture can be used. In a mobile phone application, the master ASIC may control two or more slaves, including an LCD display and a digital camera.

In the system 900 the Master application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 910 includes a phase-locked loop PLL, as well as two transmit/receive TX/RX pairs. One TX/RX pair communicates on Link 1 with Slave 920 a. Slave 920 a includes an RX/TX pair configured to communicate on Link 1. A second TX/RX pair of the Master ASIC 910 is configured to communicate on Link 2 with Slave 920 b, which also includes an RX/TX pair.

Note that in order to transmit data on a link, a PLL is required to generate the clocks required to time the transmit signal. As in the system 900, this PLL may be shared by multiple link circuits on a master ASIC since PLL circuits are generally expensive in terms of power dissipation and die area. Since implementation of clock recovery is straightforward with differential RZ signaling, the transmitter on a slave device may be clocked using the recovered clock from the received on the same device. This eliminates the need for a PLL circuit on the slave devices.

Note that in differential RZ signaling, as described in previous subsections, transmission of a “1” or “0” involves a pulse on either line in a link differential pair. Other forms of signaling involving high values on both lines and low values on both lines can be used to signal a slave device to go into low-power mode or to “wake up” a slave device that is in low-power mode. For example, holding both the P and N line high for more than a set time period can be a signal to the slave to go into sleep mode. Holding both the P and N line low for more than y seconds can be a signal for the slave to wake up from sleep mode. Other methods may be devised for a two stations on either side of a link to perform a data rate negotiation (i.e. determine the fastest line rate at which both stations can function).

Methods

FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate methods consistent with some embodiments of the present invention. In FIG. 10, a method includes steps of 1010, receiving differential serial data signals comprising a differential return-to-zero signaling, and 1020, executing an OR logic operation between said differential serial data signals so as to recover a clock from said differential serial data signals

In FIG. 11, a method includes steps 1110, receiving data; 1120, generating a transmit clock signal; 1130, encoding the data into a plurality of differential serial data signals comprising a differential return-to-zero signaling and timed by the transmit clock signal; 1140, providing the plurality of differential serial data signals over a serial link to a receiver; 1150, receiving, at the receiver, said differential serial data signals; and 1160, executing an OR logic operation between said differential serial data signals so as to recover a clock from said differential serial data signals

Advantages

As noted above, by using differential RZ signaling over a serial link, embodiments of the present invention provide a reduction in power dissipation relative to NRZ signaling. Further, the clock recovery circuits embodied by the present invention recover clock from differential data via logic-gate like circuits and avoid expensive PLL-based CDR circuits.

Another advantage of the differential RZ link described in this disclosure is that, during operation, electromagnetic interference (EMI) produce by the link will occur at the link rate and its harmonics. In contrast, with NRZ signaling the EMI is spread over a wider frequency range in a data-dependent manner. With differential RZ signaling a pulse is produced regardless of whether a “1” or a “0” is transmitted. As a result the EMI is concentrated at the line rate and its harmonics. Having all the EMI at one frequency may be advantageous in applications such as mobile phones where the link rate can be chosen to be outside the radio-frequency (RF) bands used by the mobile phone.

Although the present invention has been described in terms of specific exemplary embodiments, it will be appreciated that various modifications and alterations might be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments described and should be ascertained by inspecting the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A circuit, comprising: an input circuit configured to receive a differential signal, the differential signal comprising a first signal that transmits a high bit on a first link and a second signal that transmits a low bit on a second link; a plurality of integrating capacitors configured to generate a plurality of voltages based on the differential signal; a logic circuit coupled to the input circuit, wherein the logic circuit is configured to modulate a supply voltage to generate a clock signal based on the differential signal; and a plurality of flip-flops coupled to the logic circuit and the plurality of integrating capacitors, wherein the plurality of flip-flops are configured to be timed based on the clock signal, to sample the plurality of voltages across the plurality of integrating capacitors, and to generate recovered data.
 2. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising: a flip-flop configured to: receive the clock signal, and generate a recovered clock signal based on the clock signal.
 3. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the logic circuit is configured to perform an OR logical operation between the first signal and the second signal.
 4. A method of recovering a clock from a serial stream of data, the method comprising: receiving, using a clock recovery circuit, a differential signal comprising a first signal that transmits a high bit on a first link and a second signal that transmits a low hit on a second link; sampling, using a plurality of flip-flops coupled to a plurality of integrating capacitors, the differential signal; modulating, using a logic circuit, a supply voltage to generate a clock signal based on the differential signal, wherein the plurality of flip-flops are timed based on the clock signal; and generating recovered data using the plurality of flip-flops.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: generating a recovered clock signal from the clock signal by dividing the clock signal.
 6. The method of claim 4, further comprising: performing an integrate and dump function using the differential signal.
 7. The method of claim 4, further comprising: executing an OR logical operation between the first signal and the second signal.
 8. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the differential signal is a differential return-to-zero signal.
 9. The method of claim 4, wherein receiving the differential signal comprises: receiving a differential return-to-zero signal.
 10. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising: a driver coupled to the logic circuit, wherein the logic circuit is configured to modulate the supply voltage using the driver.
 11. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the clock signal comprises a pair of clock signals.
 12. The circuit of claim 2, wherein the flip-flop is a T-type flip-flop.
 13. A circuit, comprising: an input circuit configured to receive a differential signal, the differential signal comprising a first signal that transmits a high hit on a first link and a second signal that transmits a low bit on a second link; an amplifier coupled to the input circuit, wherein the amplifier is configured to ampify the differential signal; a plurality of integrating capacitors coupled to the amplifier, wherein the plurality of integrating capacitors are configured to generate a plurality of voltages based on the amplified differential signal; a logic circuit, coupled to the input circuit, wherein the logic circuit is configured to modulate a supply voltage to generate a clock signal based on the differential signal; a flip-flop coupled to the logic circuit, wherein the flip-flop is configured to generate a recovered clock signal based on the clock signal; and a plurality of flip-flops coupled to the flip-flop and the plurality of integrating capacitors, wherein the plurality of flip-flops are configured to be timed based on the recovered clock signal, to sample the plurality of voltages across the plurality of integrating capacitors, and to generate recovered data.
 14. A communications device, comprising: a master circuit comprising a phase-locked loop (PLL), wherein the master circuit is configured to transmit a signal, and wherein the signal is clocked using the PLL; a slave circuit coupled to the master circuit, wherein the slave circuit comprises: an input circuit configured to receive the signal, wherein the signal comprises a first signal that transmits a high bit on a first link and a second signal that transmits a low bit on a second link, a plurality of integrating capacitors configured to generate a plurality of voltages based on the signal, a logic circuit coupled to the input circuit, wherein the logic circuit is configured to modulate a supply voltage to generate a clock signal based on the signal, and a plurality of flip-flops coupled to the logic circuit and the plurality of integrating capacitors, wherein the plurality of flip-flops are configured to be timed based on the clock signal, to sample the plurality of voltages across the plurality of integrating capacitors, and to generate recovered data.
 15. The communications device of claim 14, wherein the slave circuit further comprises: a flip-flop coupled to the logic circuit, wherein the flip-flop is configured to: receive the clock signal, and generate a recovered clock signal based on the clock signal.
 16. The circuit of claim 13, wherein the differential signal is a differential return-to-zero signal.
 17. The circuit of claim 13, further comprising: a driver coupled to the logic circuit, wherein the logic circuit is configured to modulate the supply voltage using the driver.
 18. The communications device of claim 14, further comprising: a driver coupled to the logic circuit, wherein the logic circuit is configured to modulate the supply voltage using the driver.
 19. The circuit of claim 13, wherein the flip-flop is a T-type flip-flop,
 20. The circuit of claim , wherein the high bit is a logical 1, and wherein the low bit is a logical
 0. 21. The method of claim 4, wherein the high bit is a logical 1, and wherein the low bit is a logical
 0. 22. The circuit of claim 13, wherein the high bit is a logical 1, and wherein the low bit is a logical
 0. 23. The communications device of claim 14, wherein the high bit is a logical 1, and wherein the low bit is a logical
 0. 